Turning the Figure; a Lone Running Figure
Dividing a twist among foot, knee, hip and neck, and giving a running figure opposite arm and leg
A text page from the Trattato della pittura, Book Three, on how a figure should turn and move convincingly. Leonardo says a figure looking backward or to the side must not swing all its limbs after the head; the turn is instead shared among four joints — foot, knee, hip and neck — with the chest held while the neck alone follows the eye. A short following chapter on a single figure shown apart from a narrative insists that a running figure oppose its limbs, one hand forward and one back, the arm opposite to the advanced foot. The rules are contrapposto and counter-motion for lifelike action.
On this page
A twist shared among four joints
For a figure that must turn back or sideways, do not move the feet and every limb toward where the head turns; divide the turn among four joints, the foot, the knee, the hip and the neck. Standing on the right leg, bend the left knee inward with its foot raised somewhat outward, drop the left shoulder a little, and align the nape and the left shoulder by plumb lines over the outer ankle and tip of the right foot.
Let the neck turn, not the chest
Always contrive figures so that where the head turns, the chest does not turn with it, since nature made the neck to serve the wishes of the eye and swivel to various positions. Only if a seated man must reach across to work at something should the chest turn over the joint of the hip.
A single running figure (d'una figura sola)
Do not repeat the limbs in the same motion in a figure imagined to be alone: a figure running must not have both hands forward, but one forward and one back, or it cannot run. If the right foot is forward, the right arm should be back and the left forward, for without such opposition one cannot run well.